Incomplete speed run of Jak & Daxter 2 for the PlayStation 2. Was disqualified for submission to Speed Demos Archive when the second of four source VHS tapes was lost in the mail.


Author's comments:

October 15, 2005 - Ben Fichter

There are two reasons why I didn't do this run months ago:

1) I was afraid that it would be longer than 7 hours.
2) The game is difficult.

Both reasons are why I did this in many segments. To gauge my time I would cross-multiply. I would take the overall percentage which is of course 100% and then times that by the time I had in game...say 1 hr 20 mins (converting to 100s so it would be 80 mins) and then dividing that by my current percentage. This would give me the basic idea as to how long it would be. Of course, I had to get about an hour or so into the game for the cross-multiply to be more accurate since the length of missions vary dramatically. The only odd thing about this is that sometimes when I would do a long mission I'd only get one extra percentage and then when I'd do a very small mission I'd get three or more. The last time I did it the equation told me that it would be about 5 hrs 30+ mins.

Ways to improve the run:

1. Almost always travel on the one-person vehicles. They are at least twice as fast as the other ones. However, they are random whenever you load.

2. You don't need any other dark abilities besides the beginning one. For all the time it takes to get an ability and then the time it takes to get enough dark eco to use it just to save 5-10 seconds in different locations is not very useful.

3. Do the missions in a different order. I did the first 4-5 missions in a different order from the strategy guide simply because I didn't have the guide at the time. From then on, however, I go mission by mission according to the guide.

I'll mention the missions that either kicked my ass a bunch of times or were just incredibly hard yet I pulled off a very good time.

Almost the entirety of the 2nd Act is missing. Instead of going through the whole game again and trying to make everything sync up I'm going ahead and doing it on Hero Mode. I hope the segments that are here are enough to make the wait for Hero Mode a little easier.

Blow Up Ammo At Fortress: I had found two shortcuts and I wanted both of them to work. Luckily they did. Even though at the time this mission was very hard, it's tame compared to others.

Destory Eggs At Drill Platform: Several times I got all the way to the end and then got killed. One time I was pixels away from the exit gateway and I know I had hit the triangle button, but they still fired off a lucky shot.

Win Class 3 Race At Stadium: Actually, the Class 2 race is easier than Class 3 and Class 1 is the easiest. Class 3 and 2 have shortcuts, but you have to leap off the track to do them. This means leaping 5 times during the race. Class 1's shortcuts were shown on the map and very easy. No leaping. Go figure.

Rescue Friends At Fortress: This was insanely hard just to beat and then I saw in the guide that you could shave off an extra 10-20 seconds so I went back and tried it...and tried it...and then said screw it.

Beat Erol In Race Challenge: One of the coolest missions because he is ahead of me most of the time. I only beat him by .2 seconds or something.

Destroy Eggs In Strip Mine: An obstacle course where you really don't get a chance to screw up or you blow the whole thing.

Get Heart Of Mar In Weapons Lab: This one wasn't particularly hard and it was because I used the Peacemaker. It's a good crowd-controller and this was really the only mission where I used it. If I hadn't this would've been at least 30 seconds longer...probably more.

It took more than a month to get through Act II and then I seemed to breeze through Act III in about two weeks. I don't know if the missions were easier or if I just wanted to get done. I think it's a little bit of both.

Any questions or comments feel free to write me at Mkt2015 at aol.com.

On to Hero Mode!

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